Alleged heroin dealers stopped in Peru make initial court appearance

A man and woman picked up for allegedly dealing heroin in Peru have to come up with big cash to get out of jail.

Wilfredo Candelaria of Peru and Nora Toovey of DePue were both in court Sunday being charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Their bond was set at $1 million each. Both are due back in court Thursday.

Candelaria and Toovey were pulled over Friday night at 6th and Fulton Streets in Peru. With the help of a drug dog, Peru Police Chief Doug Bernabei says officers found over 100 separate packages of heroin and a small amount of crack cocaine and paraphernalia.

Office Depot to close Peru call center

A call center in Peru will be closed by the end of the year. Employees of the Office Depot call center were told Thursday that the office would be closing in November according to an employee contacted Classic Hits 103.9 WLPO.

Office Depot spokeswoman Karen Denning says the closing is part of the Office Depot/OfficeMax integration. She says employees will have the opportunity to apply for work-from-home positions with Office Depot’s third-party customer service solutions provider or open positions at other locations.

The company announced last March that it was closing its call center Ottawa, putting at least 130 people out of work. The Ottawa and Peru call centers had been part of Office Max. The companies merged in November 2013.

La Salle Alderman suggests extending the hours for alcohol sales

Your neighborhood convenience store might be open around the clock but you can’t walk in anytime to buy a case of beer. In La Salle, stores can sell packaged liquor from 6am until 11pm.

Alderman Boo Herndon wonders if they couldn’t extend those hours to be more competitive with stores in Peru. He says with a new 24-hour Casey’s and a 24-hour Beck’s on the way, stores should be allowed to sell later at night.

Stores in Peru can sell package liquor from 6am until 2am the following morning Monday through Friday and until 3am on Saturdays and Sundays.

Herndon brought up the issue Tuesday night. The city council could decide to revisit their liquor ordinance.

State Comptroller talks about the state budget and economy with local mayors

Your state comptroller doesn’t have a vote in Springfield but, as she puts it, she has a large megaphone. Republican Leslie Geissler Munger is settling into her new position of Illinois Comptroller. She visited Starved Rock Lodge Tuesday to talk to a couple of local mayors and reporters about the state’s economy and Governor Bruce Rauner’s budget proposal.

Rauner has proposed cutting funding for local governments. Spring Valley Mayor Walt Marini made it clear to Munger that his town needs every dollar it receives from the state.  Marini says Spring Valley is an older community and is already taxed enough.

Peru Mayor Scott Harl also urged Munger to bring that message back to Springfield.  Harl says Peru stands to lose $500,000 is funding.

Munger says the budget proposed by Rauner last week was just a starting point. She says the state has $8 million in unpaid bills, but she believes Rauner’s policies will turn things around for Illinois.

IV Regional Airport would be used by Exelon as an emergency staging area

The La Salle Generating Station has operated for 30 years without a large-scale emergency. But if a disaster happens, Exelon will be allowed to use the Illinois Valley Regional Airport in Peru as an emergency staging area.

Peru and attorneys for Exelon are working on an agreement. The city would need to make available parking, a helipad and access to power. Chuck Studer runs the airport for the city. He says the agreement isn’t asking for anything that they can’t provide and there won’t be a cost to the city. He says the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Aeronautics has already approved it.

Peru’s attorney, Doug Schweirckert says he has issues with some parts of the agreement. The council held off on approving it Monday night.

Peru and Ottawa RadioShacks on the list of possible closures

A technology store that has been in the Peru Mall for years could be one of many closing. RadioShack announced Thursday that it had filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

The chain has 4,000 stores in the Unite States. A long list of possible closures includes a store in Ottawa and many others Illinois. The company wants to sell as many assets as possibly.

As many as 1,700 stores would remain open thanks to Sprint. The mobile phone company thinks it would be a way to be more competitive with Verizon, AT&T and other cell phone services.

Demolition begins at an old grocery store in Peru

Debris is all that will be left of an old grocery store in Peru. Crews Friday were demolishing the former Jewel building on Shooting Park Road.

The empty store and adjacent strip mall were bought last April by a developer who built a new CVS Pharmacy on the lot. The developer also owns the building that used to be a Pizza Hut and later a dry cleaners. That building will be torn down following the grocery store.  American Demolition is the company doing the work.

Jewel closed in 2012. Prior to being a Jewel it was an Eagle Country Market.

Peru’s to hold another Family Fun Day Saturday

There is plenty of snow for sledding at Peru’s McKinley Park. You and your children can enjoy sledding, ice skating and free snacks during a Family Fun Day Saturday.

It’s sponsored by the Peru Parks and Rec Department. Activities will go from 1-4pm Saturday.  The menu will include hot chocolate and cider, hot dogs and cookies. You’ll find the park off of Walnut Street.

Hermann leaves office in Bureau County

Seeking justice for victims while treating the accused fairly can be a tough line to walk, but it was the path former Bureau County State’s Attorney Pat Hermann tried to take.

Hermann’s last day as prosecutor was Saturday. He was appointed to the position in 1998 and says there were many changes to state law between then and now.

Hermann says the rules for prosecuting DUI, domestic battery and assault cases were made more complete, something he says was helpful. And his office had new territory to learn with the advent of computer and internet crimes.

Hermann, like all states attorneys in Illinois, lost the option of seeking the death penalty with a change in state law several years ago. He says ending the death penalty took a very serious plea advantage from the state.

The next phase of Hermann’s career will be working as a personal injury attorney with an office in Peru.

Geno Caffarini is the acting States Attorney until the Bureau County Board makes an appointment. Hermann recommended Cafffarini for the job and says Caffarini is very calm, a good quality for a prosecutor.

Amusement Tax not an option to pay for new movie theater in Peru

Keeping a movie theater in Peru is a big deal for many city officials. But not enough of a big deal to pass an Amusement Tax. Carmike Cinemas plans to leave the Peru Mall at the end of the year. A developer has asked the city for $875,000 as an incentive to build a new 10-screen cinema. City officials had been considering passing an Amusement Tax to pay for the incentive, but that idea has been abandoned according to the city’s attorney Doug Schweickert.

According to a statement released Monday evening by Schweickert, the Peru City Council is not “willing to impose a tax with broader applicability”. City officials say they’re still working on an agreement with the developer DMAR, LLC, the property owner and Carmike.

The new theater would be built north of Hy-Vee and have luxury seating two more screens than the old one. An Amusement Tax would have applied to more than just movie tickets; it would have applied to bowling as well. The possibility of a seven-percent tax concerned Illinois Valley Super Bowl owner Jim Stubler.